The Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute Archives include the best legal "briefs," transcripts, and motions in cases reported in the Civil Liberties Docket since 1955. For the law profession, these materials have served as a major resource for lawyers involved in civil liberties cases anywhere in the United States.

The Archives, originally a component of the Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Library, builds upon the pioneering work of attorney and civil rights activist Ann Fagan Ginger who conceived of an organization to foster effective, innovative legal research, writing, and courtroom strategies to be shared among all lawyers and clients in the constitutional law fields of civil liberties, due process, and civil rights. In 1964 she described her idea to the great civil libertarian Alexander Meiklejohn, who gave his permission for the use of his name.